For Crimea, Google Shows Different Borders Based on Your Location

What's This?

A screenshot of Crimea as seen on google.com/maps.

Image: google.com/maps

By Brian Ries2014-04-11 22:23:10 UTC

Russia's Minister of Communications and Mass Media noticed it first.

"Google has included #Crimea to Russia on their maps," Nikolay Nikiforov tweeted on Friday, showing a screenshot of Crimea on Google Maps with a squiggly black line dividing the peninsula from mainland Ukraine.

RT.com saw it, too. "Crimea as shown by Google Maps’ Russian service," the Russian news service announced. "The border with Ukraine shown in solid line reserved for borders between sovereign countries."

Guess that makes Russia's annexation of Crimea Google-official.

See also: Mapmakers Debate How to Define Crimea

But if you go to Google Maps from your computer in America, you won't see the demarcation. Google will show you the dotted black line reserved for disputed borders.

So, what gives? It turns out Google decides which geopolitical truth to tell you based on which country's version of Google you are using.

How Russia Sees Crimea

Russian users of Google Maps, who use the service through Google.ru, will see that Crimea is wholly a territory of Mother Russia. That black line is a border — the same style that marks all 1,426.07 miles from the Black Sea in the south to Belarus in the north.

A screenshot of Crimea as seen on google.ru/maps.

Image: google.ru

How America Sees Crimea

Americans who visit the region on Google Maps through Google.com will see the disputed border — where it seems the two countries are still working things out.

A screenshot of Crimea as seen on google.com/maps.

Image: google.com/maps

How Ukraine Sees Crimea

But what for Ukrainians, who lost Crimea following Russia's annexation last month? Nothing to see here. Users on Google.ua will hardly notice a nearly invisible grey dotted line that etches its way between Crimea and mainland Ukraine.

A screenshot of Crimea as seen on google.com.ua/maps.

Image: google.com.ua/maps

Svetlana Anurova, who RIA Novosti says is a representative of the Russian office of Google, issued a statement to Russian media outlets on Friday that says, "The Google Maps team is doing everything possible to objectively reflect the disputed regions and objects. In relevant cases, the boundaries of the disputed territories on the maps have a special designation. In those countries where we have a localized version of the maps, we follow local laws for displaying the borders and the use of certain names." A source told Voice of Russia the move was intentional.

Mashable reached out to Google for comment on Friday and we've yet to hear back. We'll update this story if we do.

In the past, Google has said it only acts on “fair information” the company receives from states — and has refused to comment on specific cases. It's been under fire before, most recently regarding the disputed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.

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Topics: Politics, russia, US & World, World